S. Korea to set up city-like test bed for autonomous vehicles

In order to gain competitiveness in the rapidly-growing global autonomous vehicle industry, the South Korean government will set up a test bed to provide researchers with a testing ground which simulates urban areas.

"The world-class test bed will become the footstone for South Korea's autonomous driving industry," said the transport ministry in a Tuesday statement. The ministry said it has started the construction of "K-City", an autonomous vehicle testing ground which simulates an urban environment, at Hwaseong city, a southern satellite city of Seoul.

The ministry said it will invest 11 billion won (9,771 US dollars) into the project until next year, in an aim to commercialize the autonomous cars in South Korea by 2020.

K-City will be built over an area the size of 320,000 square meters (32 hectares) and will include infrastructures which simulate a highway, parking lots, local communities and urban and rural living areas, the ministry said.

The testing ground will also simulate similar conditions to current urban roads such as pot holes, bottleneck areas as well as traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. The whole area will be covered by the fourth generation wireless network, which is vital for autonomous vehicles.

Including the transport ministry, the South Korean government has loosened its regulations over autonomous cars last year, allowing the test drive of the vehicles in all roads over the country. Along with the development of the test bed, the government has launched projects to build infrastructures to help the autonomous vehicle industry's growth.